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At any given moment on any given day, there are countless cruise ships embarking on a once-in-a-lifetime voyage — all from the same port. If you’re lucky enough to be heading out on one of these floating paradises, there is one last thing you have to do before you can kick back on the lido deck and enjoy that first Piña Colada: Park! With so many ships leaving port at the same time there are thousands of people flocking everyday to a very concentrated area, making parking a significant incubus for travelers. ParkJockey is here to ease these parking concerns by providing vacationers with a parking reservation technology system in four of the busiest cruise ports in America!

As the holiday festivities finish up and 2014 draws to a close, there is one more grand celebration that brings people into New York City for the New Year: the dropping of the New Year’s Eve ball in Times Square. Come on down This annual tradition began in 1907-1908, when New York Times’ owner, Alfred Ochs, threw a new year’s eve party of massive proportions. It was his way of bringing people up from Brooklyn and lower Manhattan to what was then Longacre Square. The party began with a street festival that lasted all day. Once it was dark, fireworks were set off, and the ball was dropped for the first time. It was an instant success that suddenly became a New Year’s tradition. Before that, people had gathered at Trinity Wall Street Church, awaiting the bells to chime that would “Ring out the old year, and ring in the new year.” But given the drunken and raucous behavior of the celebrants, the church was glad to hand over the New Year’s celebration to the New York Times.

According to The New Yorker, the origin of using “time balls” to mark a point in time goes back to the early 1800s, when Captain Robert Wauchope thought of the idea of having naval observatories use visual signals to help ships recalibrate their chronometers. Chronometers were clocks used on ships to help approximate distance traveled over time. Although the time balls were ultimately believed impractical due to low visibility, the time ball became a more popular tradition inland. Alfred Ochs had Artkraft Strauss construct a time ball for One Times Square, which, at the time, was the tallest building in New York. But instead of dropping it every day at noon as other time balls had been used for, they just dropped it the once at midnight to celebrate the New Year.

There were only two years that the ball did not drop: 1942 and 1943. During the war, New Yorkers maintained a “dimout” procedure to prevent German submarines from seeing the shore to attack it. In those two years, the congregated people had a moment of silence and then rang bells in the old tradition.

According to Times Square New York, there have been 7 incarnations of the time ball. The first had one hundred 25-watt light bulbs, was 5 feet in diameter and weighed 700 pounds. The current incarnation has 32,256 Philips Luxeon LEDs, is twelve feet in diameter, weighs nearly 6 tons, and can create a kaleidoscope of colors to entrance and excite.

So come to Time’s Square and see what the time ball will look like this year given its immense possibilities, and bring in the new year right with the roughly one billion people that come to Time’s Square or tune in on their television. But make sure to book your parking ahead of time, as it will be almost impossible to find parking within Manhattan on the night of the event. ABM Parking Services is now partnering with ParkJockey to provide locations right in the heart of Midtown, just a few steps away from the Museum of Modern Art. And spaces this good will not last long. ParkJockey also has garages available all throughout the Upper East and West sides as well as lower Manhattan. So book your parking for New Year’s now! Wherever you need to go, ParkJockey has you covered!

Sign up now and use the promo code “NEWYEAR”, and new users will receive a discount on your next booking. But act quickly because once the ball drops, so does the promotion!

On Tuesday, November 11th, the 95th annual New York City Veterans Day Parade, aptly titled “America’s Parade,” will be honoring the men and women who have served and protected our country by marching up 5th Avenue from 26th to 52nd street. Veterans Today describes this Parade as “the largest Veterans Day Event in the nation”. This year, the parade’s theme will be “’Land of the Free/Home of the Brave,’ in honor of the 200th Anniversary of the writing of the Star Spangled Banner. The Featured Service Branch will be the U.S. Marine Corps.

The Parade first started in 1919 after Woodrow Wilson declared Armistice Day a national holiday on Nov. 11. Over the years, Armistice Day became Veterans Day and started to get the serious attention and support that it gets today (over 20,000 participants each year) when the United War Veterans Council formed, taking on the responsibility of organizing the Veteran’s Day Parades in 1945 shortly after World War II.

America’s Parade has become a long standing tradition of honoring our men and women in uniform. However, if you are unable to make the trip into New York City for the Parade, the New York City Veterans Community is organizing the third annual “Veterans Week NYC.” According to Veterans Today, the Week consists of activities like the “Patriots Tour”, which visits war monuments throughout the 5 boroughs, the “Veterans Mass” at St. Patrick’s Cathedral on November 9th, and the “Band of Pride” concert in Times Square on November 10th. Make sure to come into the city to check these events out and support our troops.

Now comes the tricky part. With thousands of people coming into the city to attend these events, finding parking will be very difficult. You can make your trip easier by booking your parking ahead of time with ParkJockey. We have parking in NOMAD by the Parade’s starting point as well as parking in Midtown, Flatiron, and all throughout New York City.

As populations continue to grow in large cities, car usage rises to match the population increase. All of this has made parking even more challenging and complicated. To make matters worse, evidence exists that some drivers are using and selling fraudulent disabled parking decals to steal spots from the disabled. Mark Perriello, president and CEO of the American Association of People with Disabilities describes it as a serious problem, saying “the issue needs to be addressed.”

An article in Government Technology Magazine discussed a new solution being tested by Pondera Solutions. Pondera Solutions is a “product and services firm focused on implementing Google solutions in government agencies.” As mentioned in the article, they are using Google technology to address the emerging disabled parking problem. The Fraud Detection as a Service (FDaaS) is described as “a cutting-edge fraud detection engine that helps identify, predict, and prevent improper use of disabled parking permits.” Jon Coss, CEO of Pondera Solutions, said the FDaaS can help track down fraudsters. He rightly observes that “if someone is at 500 percent of the average [number of replacement cards issued], they are either very forgetful or it’s possible they might be profiting from trafficking these things.”

However, FDaaS does not provide definitive proof of fraud, merely an indicator of it, which requires state or local agencies to follow up on the information. So although it is drawing a lot of positive attention and a number of jurisdictions are considering using FDaaS, it is not a finalized solution to the problem.

So when planning to drive in the city, why take the chance that some driver with fraudulent disabled parking decals will steal your spot? We are firmly against parking fraud and we have your back!

With ParkJockey, you are guaranteed a spot at a convenient location nearest to your destination. We even have a feature where you can specify disabled parking so all of your individual needs are met. No hassles like mystery parking tickets, no worry about fraudulent placards, no time wasted looking for your spot. No matter where you may want to go in the city, be it Flatiron, Tribeca, Midtown Manhattan, or anywhere in the NYC area, ParkJockey allows you to focus on what is important, the destination.

Make sure to use the promo code NOFRAUD next time you park and save 10% off your parking!